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Potty training. The most excited you'll ever be about excrement and urine...

Three words to sum up what it took to successfully potty train my toddler:

Persistence. Patience. Exaggeration.

Persistence...because once you start you MUST stick with it!!! Oh it's hard, it's annoying, it's frustrating, it's time consuming, etc. but it's worth the struggle and it will save you $$$$!!! With Maddox, we started by bringing him in the bathroom whenever we went and had him sit on his potty. Then we started taking him in there to sit on the potty right when he woke up...and then every couple of hours until bedtime. We spent quite a bit of time in the oval office before seeing any results...that's where the Patience comes in.

Exaggeration is what really worked for us. When he finally did pee we made a big freakin' deal about it!!! I mean clapping, shouting woohoo's, jumping up and down, singing potty songs, big smiles, high fives & sometimes even a present (which we stocked up on) & a sticker on his chart (which he would get for going potty, and cleaning up his toys). Eventually, he became excited about going potty...& that's when we began weening away the extreme exaggeration of excitement for excrement and urine, and cut it down to high-fives and a "good job". He remains excited about being a "big boy" and I couldn't be more proud of him. :) We haven't had any accidents for a few months & he doesn't need a pull-up to sleep, however, I have him wear one just in case. ;)